On Sunday, December 11 at 2:38 a.m. ET, SpaceX launched ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Lunar Flashlight to a lunar transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the fifth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched SES-22 and three Starlink missions.
Update 1 posting…
SpaceX was targeting Thursday, December 1st., for a Falcon 9 launch of ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1, however, after further inspections of the launch vehicle and data review, SpaceX is standing down from Falcon 9’s launch of ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A new target launch date will be shared once confirmed.
This is the first privately-led, Japanese mission to land on the lunar surface and will lift-off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Also onboard this mission is NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Lunar Flashlight.
The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched SES-22 and three Starlink missions.
When the launch takes place, following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
A live webcast of this mission will start about 15 minutes prior to liftoff and may be viewed via this direct link…